Why are kids nowadays such a bunch of Mama's boys and girls?

Question

They like to spend all the time on the Internet and computer games. Sheer disinterest in outdoor activities such as ball sports and a total lack of responsibility for their own future. I've lived in the same city my whole life and I swear it wasn't this bad even 10 years ago. I see lots of 18, 20 and 22 year olds' who continue to live in their parents' nest and have absolutely no sense of future. I see 28 to 30 year old "kids" who continue to live in their parents' nest and have no sense of what they should do in future. You see where I'm coming from, right? I'm sad to observe this but many parents in 2008 are actually raising not responsible future citizens, but lousy, slouching, obese, ill-mannered, violent and irresponsible WOOSIES.

Answer 1

Hopefully you can raise angels and rescue all the woosies.

Answer 2

Why would you move out of mommy and daddy's house when you could live there cheaply (if not freely) plus, they buy you luis vutton and chanel c**p?!

Speaking of which, why are these 12 year old girls wearing more designer labels than me??  Why are these 12 year old girls showing more cleavage than me??

It's become somehow acceptable to live with your parents.  I'm 23, at the age of 18 I felt compelled to move out.  It's not that I hate my parents, I just don't see why I can't venture into the world.  A lot of my friends still live at home.  

There's also that "boomerang" child syndrome - the child moves out for 2-3 years then returns to the safety of mommy and daddy.

I think the major thing is that kids now don't know so much about a "hard life".  Like back in my parent's day, you moved into a crappy tiny house.  You moved out because there were 8 siblings crammed into a tiny house.  Kids now expect to move out and put a downpayment on a brand new, large house.  It's really expensive to live.  So, for a lot of people, why would you move out of the comfort of mom's and live in a dingy roach-filled apartment, eat only rice and bread and <gasp> buy your clothes from a consignment store.  

It bugs me too.  I'm not sure why all these kids are insisting on living with parents until their 30s.  ...but then you have these pregnant 16 year olds...  

Don't get me started on the obesity and violence.  I'm rather disgusted at what we've turned into.

Life is super expensive, minimum wage doesn't even cover the basics.  Like seriously, I've spent an hour's wage soley on toilet paper...  I guess I could move home and spend my money on myself rather than survival.  It's the end of the month, I'm sick and can't afford kleenex to blow my nose...why would someone do this to themselves when they can live with parents forever??

edit:  Yea, I definitely am not saying that life is more "expensive" than before...I'm an econ major, I totally get inflation.  It's always been crappy.  It's just that the kids now are accustomed to a lot higher standard of living.  Like, when my mom was a girl, she had 8 siblings...her old shoes went through all the sisters, she got some of her older brother's clothes...thankfully she was the oldest girl - she got some new clothes...but her clothes usually came from older cousins or neighbors.  This is a middle class family!!  Lots of the kids now don't get the idea of "hand me downs".  Every kid walks around with a 250$ ipod.  I see lots of the younger girls wearing True Religion jeans (250$)!   Parents now have worked their whole lives to build up a higher living standard than what they had as kids.  So to move out and face the grim reality that your Ipod is worth three days of work, it's a harsh lesson.   Honestly, growing up I didn't realize that "juice" was a luxury...I drink water now because I'd rather be able to afford dinner.

Answer 3

I think it's just a generational thing.  Plus, people are having children older than they used to.  It used to be that people would have children when they were 20 years old.  Now the average age is 29.  That adds 9+ years onto when they think the kids should be "kicked out" so to speak because they took that extra 9 years to grow and start a family too.

Answer 4

My opinion is this...mass media, mostly television, has brought broad awareness to crimes against children.  Kidnapping, rape, abuse, neglect.  Those things used to go on unnoticed by all.  Now that we can see how awful a child's life can be, we probably tend to over-compensate with our own children.  My child is 14 and we joke about me spanking her because I never have spanked her and she knows I never will.  The reason I never spanked her is because I've got that little voice called t.v., in the very least, making me second guess every move I make as a parent.

I also think we've been living in some financially healthy times.  In the past ten-fifteen years, there's more money and time to spend on children.  Fathers have more time off work to spend with children and more money to spend on them.

It could be that your question is backwards.  Maybe the question is, why were children mistreated, neglected, and abused so often earlier in the 20th century.